Telegraphs
Telegraphs have been making little ripples on the music scene recently, but before those ripples turn into waves, we caught up with the stunning Hattie Williams to find out a little bit more abut this sultry band.
Hello there pretty, how are things going in your lovely world?
Great thanks! We’re off on tour again tonight. I can’t wait.
We are proper 100% loving your super hot new record…tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it…
Thanks so much! We draw inspiration from all sorts of things; I don’t think that there was one particular thing that inspired the record as a whole. Some of the songs on there are two or three years old, some of them were written pretty much as we went into the studio to record. They map different times in our lives. We get very inspired by music that we discover, it’s funny for us to listen back to the album because we can hear which record we were really into at the time of writing some of the songs.
To anyone who hasn’t heard of you yet, how would you describe your sound?
Loud – melodic – aggressive. We’re pretty much a rock band.
If you were going to give us just one song of yours to listen to so that you would become our new favourite band, what would it be?
I would choose a song called ‘Forever Never’. It’s my favourite on the album. It generally wins people over if they sit down and listen to it through headphones.
If you could cover another band’s song, what would it be?
There is talk of a cover of ‘Rent’ by Pet Shop Boys. Or maybe something Sugar Hill Gang.
And can you sum up your good selves in just five words?
Darcy Darren Hattie Aung Sam? Sorry that’s cheating. Erm... Socially inept loners with guitars?
What makes you stand out from the crowd?
Oh yeesh. I don’t know if we do really stand out from the crowd! I mean, we look a bit different to other bands. But not in some brand new crazy fashion ‘core’ way. I think we make really fucking honest songs that don’t try to fit in anywhere. We don’t try to be hugely different, or gimmicky or quirky. We just do what we do and try to ignore everything happening that is ‘of the moment.’ We would like a long career, please.
You know we’re having a bit of an economic crisis here at the moment, if people wanted to spend their last £10 on a cd this weekend, why should they buy yours?
Because we saved up to pay to make the album, and so you know that your money is not going to disappear into a faceless corporate giants ugly mouth. Plus the artwork looks amazing, it was all designed around my favourite book, ‘The Sirens Of Titan’ by Kurt Vonnegut. I still like to read the sleeve notes and lyrics of an album when I listen to it... we’ve tried to make our album good for that. It’s a forgotten experience. Oh, and if you don’t buy it, we probably can’t eat anything other than the forty packets of steak and onion crisps that are in our van. And I’m pretty sure they are significantly past their sell by date.
What three bands would you have to headline your dream festival?
Hmm. Well we’d have to have Jeff Buckley for Darcy or he’d probably kill me. Then Elliot Smith. The Nirvana. I’m picking dead people because this is a dream, ok? I can see alive people play in real life.
What has been your favourite musical memory to date?
I’m very fickle and a little short sighted. So this morning I’d say that it would be seeing Idlewild play 100 Broken Windows start to finish at Dingwalls in Camden last night. I change my mind on these things every ten minutes. Whenever a song comes together when we are writing and for the first time feels like I imagined it would when I wrote it in my bedroom, that’s pretty unbelievably amazing.
If all of the bands equipment was on fire, what one piece would you save and why?
I’d be really selfish and save my bass I think. Only because I’m too poor to buy another one, not because I’m particularly fond of it! I’d be tempted to save Sam’s drum kit because it’s new and orange and sparkly and sounds like a battle.
Who do you think is the greatest artist around at the moment?
Again, my fickleness denotes that I change my mind every five minutes. I suspect that Neil Young or Leonard Cohen may be the greatest song writers of all time. I also think that Cursive are pretty mind blowing, and again with Idlewild. And then there is Manchester Orchestra, and Brand New... there are so many amazingly talented people making music, it’s very intimidating sometimes.
If you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I couldn’t possibly choose. Seriously. Maybe Pinkerton? Harvest?
Okay, now we want to ask you some random questions; Tell me about the most terrifying experience of your life…
No. Sorry. But I’ll lie and say that it was a flight from Munich to London and we had a tad of turbulence. I’ve not been than scared in a while. I am a terrible flyer.
What’s the most stupid purchase you’ve ever made?
I think the boys would probably say any of the hundreds of pairs of high heeled shoes that I buy and then only ever wear when I’m choosing an outfit, only to put my Converse on at the last minute.
Why go to the top of a tall building, only to put money in binoculars and look at things on the ground?
I don’t know! That is a bit silly. Maybe it makes us feel like God or something hilariously profound like that...
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison